18

CHAPTER III.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ELOHISTIC PORTIONS OF GENESIS.

We

25. THE Analysis contains a full examination of every chapter and verse in the Book of Genesis; and to this the student must be referred, who wishes thoroughly to master the subject, or to learn on what grounds any particular passage is assigned to its proper author. But for the sake of the general reader we shall here sum up in one view the principal features, which are found to characterise the Elohistic document. omit here, of course, the innumerable connecting links, and references to previous notices of the same writer, which are marked, as they occur, in the course of the Analysis; and we mention only for our present purpose the more salient points of his style, as they are found to distinguish the products of his pen throughout the whole of Genesis.

26. Characteristics of the Elohistic Portions of Genesis.

N.B. Those formula, to which an asterisk is prefixed, do not occur at all in the non-Elohistic parts of Genesis, which we may denote collectively for the present by X, while we denote the Elohistic matter by E.

*(i) after his (their) kind,' i.11,12,12,21,21,24,24,25,25,25, vi.20,20,20, vii.14, 14,14,14.

*(ii) pp, sharats, 'swarm,' p, sherets, 'swarming-things,' i.20,20,21, vii.21, 21, viii.17, ix.7, E.i.7.

*(iii) m) n, parah věravah, 'fructify and multiply,' i.22,28, viii.17, ix.1,7, xvii.(2+6), 20, xxviii.3, xxxv.11, xlvii.27, xlviii.4;

comp. gavar věravah, ‘be mighty and multiply,' vii.18.
(iv) 'these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth,' ii.4";
comp. 'this is the book of the generations of Adam,' v.1;

'these are the generations of' Noah, vi.9, of Shem, xi.10, of Jacob, xxxvii. 2a ;

'and these are the generations of' Terah, xi.27, of Ishmael, xxv.12,

of Isaac, xxv.19, of Esau, xxxvi. 1,9 :

X has 'and these are the generations of the sons of Noah,' x.1.

*(v) Thin, holid, 'beget,' v.3,4, &c. twenty-eight times, vi.10, xi.10,11, &c. twenty-nine times, xvii.20, xxv.19, xlviii.6:

X has the Hophal form of this verb once, xl.20; but in the formula where E has Thin, X employs always yalad, iv.18, 18, 18, vi. 4, x.8,13,15,24,24,26, xxii. 23, xv.3, which E never uses in the sense 'beget.'

,מְאַת (vi)*

יז

meath, 'hundred,' v.3,6,18,25,28, vii.24, viii.3", xi. 10,25, xxi.5, xxv.7, 17, xxxv.28, xlvii.9,28:

X uses, meah, always, vi.3, xxvi.12, xxxiii.19, 1.22,26, which E has also in xvii. 17, xxiii. 1.

*(vii) 'in (after) his (their) generations (, doroth),' vi.9, xvii.7,9,12.

*(viii) 'all flesh,' vi.12,13,17,19, vii.15,16,21, viii.17, ix.11,15,15,16,17.

(ix) 'N, ăni, ‘I,' vi.17, ix.9,12, xvii.1, xxxv.11, xlviii.7, xlix.29, E.vi.2,5,7, in preference to j, ănochi, 'I,' which E uses only once, xxiii.4 :

X uses the latter fifty-four, and the former thirty, times, (30.x). *(x) yış, gavah, 'expire,' vi.17, vii.21, xxv.8,17, xxxv.29, xlix.33. *(xi) ' with (ɲ) thee,' 'with them,' &c. used as a kind of expletive, vi.18,19, vii. 7,13,23, viii. 1,16,17,17,18, ix.8,10,10, xi.31, xvii.27, xxi.2, xxviii.4, xlvi.6,7,7. *(xii) thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee,' vi.18;

'Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him,' vii.7,viii.18; "Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's sons, and Noah's wife,

and his sons' three wives with them,' vii.13;

'thou and thy wife and thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee,' viii.16; 'Jacob, and all his seed with him, his sons and his sons' sons

with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters,' xlvi.6.7. *(xiii) 'give a covenant,' ix.12, xvii.2,7,19, 'establish a covenant,' vi.18, ix.9,11,17, xvii.21, E.vi.4:

X has always 'cut a covenant,' xv.18, xxi.27,32, xxvi.28, xxxi.44, which E

never uses.

*(xiv) 'my (his) covenant,' vi.18, ix.9,11,12,13,15,16,17, xvii.2,4,7,9,10,13,14,19, 21, E.ii.24, vi. 4,5.

*(xv) 'in the bone of this day' = on the selfsame day, vii.13, xvii. 23,26.

*(xvi) and Elohim remembered ' Noah, viii. 1, Abraham, xix.29, Rachel, xxx.22, His covenant, E.ii.24;

comp. 'I will remember My covenant,' ix. 15, 'to remember the covenant,' ix. 16, 'I have remembered My covenant,' E.vi.5.

*(xvii) 'with you and your seed after you,' ix.9;

'between thee and thy seed after thee,' xvii.7;

'to thee and thy seed after thee,' xvii.7,8, xxxv.12;
'thou and thy seed after thee,' xvii.9;

'between you and thy seed after thee,' xvii.10;
'with him to his seed after him,' xvii.19;

'to thee and to thy seed with thee,' xxviii.4;

'Jacob and all his seed with him,' xlvi.6:

X has to thy seed,' xii.7, xv.18, xxiv.7, xxvi.4, 'to thee and to thy seed for ever,' xiii. 15, 'to thee and to thy seed,' xxvi.3, xxviii.13—never 'thy seed after thee' or 'thy seed with thee.'

(xviii) 'everlasting generations,' ix.12, ‘everlasting covenant,' ix. 16,xvii.7,13,19, 'everlasting possession,' xvii.8, xlviii.4;

X has 'everlasting Elohim,' xxi.33, 'everlasting mountains,' xlix.26.

(xix) vạy, nephesh, 'soul,' used for 'person,' xii.5, xvii.14, xxxvi.6, xlvi.15,18, 22,25,26,26,27:

X has this once, xiv.21.

*(xx) and Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their gain (v, rěchush) which they had gotten (v, rachash), and the souls which they had made in Charran,' xii.5;

'and he led-off all his cattle and all his gain which he had gotten, the cattle of his wealth (??, kinyan), which he had gotten in Padan-Aram,’ xxxi.18;

'and Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the souls of his house and his cattle and all his beasts and all his wealth which he had gotten in the land of Canaan,' xxxvi.6;

'and they took their cattle and their gain which they had gotten in the land of Canaan,' xlvi.6.

*(xx) 'and the land did not bear them to dwell together; for their gain was much, and they were not able to dwell together,' xiii.6;

'for their gain was much above dwelling together; and the land of their sojournings was not able to bear them because of their cattle,' xxxvi.7. *(xxii) appearance of God as 'El Shaddai' to the patriarchs, xvii.1, xxxv.11, xlviii.3, E.vi.3.

*(xxiii) TND TNŊa, bimod měod, 'exceedingly,' xvii. 2,6,20, E.i.7:

X has TP TP, měod měod, vii.19a, xxx.43.

*(xxiv) 'thou shalt be a father of a multitude of nations,' xvii.4;
'a father of a multitude of nations will I give thee,' xvii.5;

'I will give thee for nations,' xvii.6;

'I will give him (Ishmael) for a great nation,' xvii.20;

'that thou mayest be for a company of peoples,' xxviii.3;

'a nation and a company of nations shall be out of thee,' xxxv.11;

'I will give thee for a company of peoples,' xlviii.4.

N.B. E speaks of many 'nations' being formed by the descendants of Abraham, and uses the formula 'give thee (him)' for a nation or nations: whereas X has the following formulæ, but never uses the expression 'give' in this connection, nor the phrase 'company (multitude) of nations (peoples)':

'I will make thee for a great nation,' xii.2;

'he shall surely be for a great and mighty nation,' xviii.18;

'I will place him (Ishmael) for a nation,' xxi.13;

'for a great nation will I place him,' xxi.18;

'two nations are in thy womb,

and two folks shall be separated from thee,' xxv.23;

'for a great nation will I place thee,' xlvi.3 ;

'his (Ephraim's) seed shall be the fulness of nations,' xlviii.19.

*(v) 'kings shall go-forth out of thee,' xvii.6;

'kings of peoples shall be out of her,' xvii.16;

'kings shall go-forth out of thy loins,' xxxv.11;

'the souls that went-forth out of his (Jacob's) thigh,' xlvi.26, E.i.5. *(xxvi) 'I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession,' xvii.8;

'that He may give to thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land of thy sojournings, which Elohim gave to Abraham,' xxviii.4;

' and the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land,' xxxv.12;

'to give to them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings in

which they sojourned,' E.vi.4.

*(xxvii) 'land of thy (their, his father's) sojournings,' xvii.8, xxviii.4, xxxvi.7, xxxvii.1, E.vi.4;

comp. ‘days of the years of my sojournings,' xlvii.9, ' days of their sojournings,'

xlvii.9.

*(xxviii) пng, ǎkhuzzah, 'possession,' xvii.8, xxiii.4,9,20, xxxvi.43, xlvii.11, xlviii.4, xlix.30, 1.13.

*(xxix) ‘the years of the life of' Sarah, xxiii.1, Ishmael, xxv. 17;

comp. 'the days of the years of the life of Abraham,' xxv.7;

'the days of Isaac,' xxxv.28;

'the days of the years of thy (my) life,' xlvii.8,9;

'the days of the years of my sojournings,' xlvii.9 ;

'the days of the years of my father's life,' xlvii.9;

'the days of Jacob, of the years of his life,' xlvii.28: •

X has all the days of thy life,' iii.14,17.

*(xxx) E describes frequently with almost legal precision the cave of Machpelah, which is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible, xxiii.17,18,19,20, xxv.9,10, xlix.29, 30,32, 1.13.

*(xxxi) E mentions expressly the burial and burial-place of Sarah, xxiii.9, of Abraham, xxv.9, of Isaac, xxxv.29, of Rachel, xxxv.19, xlviii.7, of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah, xlix.31, of Jacob, xlix.29, 1.13.

*(xxxii) and Abraham (Ishmael, Isaac) expired and died, and was gathered unto his people,' xxv.8,17, xxxv.29;

comp. 'I shall be gathered unto my people,' xlix.29;

' and he expired and was gathered unto his people,' xlix.33; also he shall be cut off from his people,' xvii.14.

*(xxxiii)' and his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him,' xxv.9;

' and his sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him,' xxxv.29;
'and his sons ... buried him,' 1.13.

(xxxiv) E uses ny, eth, 'with,' fifty-one times, viz. v.22,24, vi.9,13,18,18,19, vii.7,13,23, viii. 1,16,17,17,18, ix.8,9,9,10,10,10,11,12, xi.31, xvii.3,4,19,21,22,23, 27,27, xxi.2, xxiii.8,8,20, xxv.10, xxviii.4, xxxv.13,14,15, xxxvii.2a, 2a,2a, xlvi.6,7,7, xlix.30,32, 1.13,13,—and Dy, him, 'with,' only twice, xxiii.4,4:

X uses

seventy-nine times, and Dy ninety-three times.

27. The reader will thus perceive how numerous and distinct are the characteristic signs of this writer, who uses "Elohim' or El' throughout his narrative 87 times, or rather 88 times, if we reckon the Elohim' which appears to have stood originally in xvii.1 (Anal. 92,93). It is not, of course, intended to say that any one of the above phenomena, occurring alone, would be enough to show that the passage in which it occurs belongs certainly to E, or that none of them may be found to be used by other writers of the Pentateuch. Thus the common words n and Dy, for with,' are used in X as well as in E. But, when we consider that the matter in X constitutes sevenninths of the whole of Genesis (22), i.e. 3 times as much as the matter in E, and that, consequently, if E uses n 51 times and by twice, X should contain, in the same proportion, n, 178 times, and Dy, 7 times, whereas it actually has the former 79 times and the latter 93 times, it seems plain that E had a special partiality for the use of n rather than by.

28. Still, many of the above formulæ are so peculiar that, even if occurring by themselves in any other part of the Pentateuch, they would be enough to suggest that we have before us very probably a passage of the Elohistic document, and to turn the scale in favour of this view, if there were no decisive indications to the contrary. But, when several of them are found together in the same context, with no opposing phenomena, it is scarcely possible to doubt the Elohistic origin of the passage so marked.